To me, it's not a question of right or wrong, it's more a question of the amount of time that had elapsed and the small amount of information that was available at the time. KMTC had not even spoken to Casey. No one knew how evasive Casey was being. There was little to no evidence revealed yet. I don't think KMTC ever smelled the car, so she would be going off of George, Cindy and Lee's info about that - if there was any.
There was quite a bit of information in those first few days. On July 15th George and Cindy picked up the car at the impound yard, and later that evening Cindy found Casey at TL's apartment and dragged her home. Later that night Cindy made the lst 911 call and stated that the car smells like a dead body was in it.
In the wee hours of the 16th, and later that morning, LE accompanied Casey to the Sawgrass Apartments and later to her "job" at Universal. Late that afternoon, Casey was arrested and charged with child neglect, obstruction of justice, and lying to police officers. I remember seeing this on the news and I think Nancy Grace started her coverage of the Anthony case that day or the next.
The next day, July 17th, LE investigated the Anthony backyard, bringing in cadaver dogs.
The next day, Friday, July 18th, George and Cindy had a sit-down interview in their home with a local news media. During that interview the talked about child safety in their home, talking about Casey using a shovel to remove bamboo shoots, how the lock the shed, and how they always have the pool ladder up when not in use.
Over that weekend, on Saturday, July 19th, Cindy and JB did an interview with Geraldo, and on Monday, the 21st, Cindy did an interview with Greta Van Susteran. Tuesday, the 22nd, was the bond hearing.
I remember that during those first few days, we knew quite a bit about the case. We had many many threads going here on WS about this case. First and foremost, we knew that Caylee had been missing 31 days before her grandmother reported her missing. We knew that Casey had lied about the nanny, her job, and that she had stolen money from people. We watched the police in the Anthony backyard looking for evidence and bringing in cadaver dogs. I remember there was a webcam on the Anthony house and we had a thread here on the backyard search. We watched George and Cindy's interview - and came away from it knowing that something was really wrong, as they didn't act like distraught grandparents. We watched her interview with Geraldo.
If we, who never knew the Anthony family before news of Caylee's disappearance made national headlines, knew as much as we did about the case, I imagine someone who knew Casey probably knew a whole lot more.
I'm sure when the news of Caylee's disappearance made the local news, those who knew Casey were burning up the telephone wires calling each other......."Hey, did you hear about Casey!" They shared what they knew, and there was probably a lot of gossiping going on about who Casey's new boyfriend was, etc.
Remember Casey's call home the day she was arrested? Her friend, Christina, got on the phone and crying said, "Casey, if anything's happened to Caylee I'll just die!"
I think Christina is a good example of the reaction of Casey's friends. They were upset! I don't think it's unusual for someone who knew Casey, to reach the conclusion Kio did in just a few days. I suspect there were more people who knew Casey who had also reached the same conclusion.